We Are Forever Young
by Megumi Jade
Summary: My first little song fic. There really isn't much more to it, some choice Zoid warriors reflect on life in general...no more blobs promise please R


Disclaimer:  I do not own Alphaville or any of their songs, including the one I am making this song fic about.  I also do not own Zoids or any of the characters appearing in this fic… though I do have a few of my own characters… =)

Song: Forever Young 

Artist: Alphaville

Album: Forever Young

We Are Forever Young 

            Harry Champ stood dramatically atop his new and improved Dark Horn.  He vowed that he would defeat Bit Cloud and have Leena for himself.  But that was for another day, another time, and another place.  Now was time for peace, time to watch the sun go down over the hot desert sands, and just stay in the moment.  He took off his heavy fur lined jacket and sat down on the shoulder of his dark horn.  The Iron Kongs had been nice, but some things just felt right to him.  A slight breeze carried the hot air past him, and he inhaled deeply.  It smelled like summer, though one really couldn't tell out in this timeless wasteland.  

Perhaps that's why he liked this place…  At home, with his family, locked in a building working, it felt like time raced far past him.  Like he grew a hundred years older with every hour that passed.  Having a windowed office just made things a million times worse, he could see the day change, the seasons pass, as he worked endlessly, day after day, week after week, season by season.  Years passed so quickly he could hardly recall where all the days and weeks had gone, just a blur of papers and people, signatures, lectures, all in his glass prison as he watched everyone from his perch, as they were happy, sad, played, and lived.  Families, so unlike his family, they worked like his family, but there was happiness, and time off, and laughter, and tears shared with closeness he could never possibly feel.

_Let's dance in style, lets dance for a while   
Heaven can wait we're only watching the skies _

          This was the great equalizer though.  Zoids and Zoid warriors, the battle, the rivals, and victory and defeat based on ones' skill.  Money helped yes, most problems Harry had found, would go away if money was thrown at them.  He sighed and leaned back, nearly falling from his Zoid.  He stood and yawned in a most unromantic fashion.

This, he was beginning to understand, wasn't one of those problems.  It was time for him to really flow, he thought pulling the tiny jewelry box from his coat and opening it, letting the huge gem glitter in the ruby rays of the sunset.  A cruise through battles, victories, and losses, a pilgrimage of pain for the man destined to be king, leading hopefully through his dreams and beyond.

_Hoping for the best but expecting the worst   
Are you going to drop the bomb or not?_

_Let us die young or let us live forever  
  
_

            Brad was taking his own Zoid the Shadow Fox for a run.  It was hard to explain, but he seemed to be becoming less like the Brad he'd once known.  The heartless warrior, only out for himself, and more like… Dare he think it, a team player?  He laughed at his thoughts as the Shadow Fox continued to bound gracefully across the endless desert.  It was funny to think that a place that seemed so dead, feel so alive, and full of energy.  Was this the effect of centuries of warriors, of people who had battled, laughed, prayed, cursed and cried?  People who poured out every ounce of their energy in a battle, had the earth absorbed them?  

_We don't have the power but we never say never   
Sitting in a sandpit, life is a short trip _

_The music's for the sad men_

            For now he let his mind wander beyond the battle, to the woman he chased across this world that had become their lives.  Her mocking smile, her low voice, her beautiful body.  The way she admired him set him afire, even if half of what she thought wasn't really true, he was fairly sure he could convince her to be happy with the man he was…  The only thing was, that he wasn't so sure who that was anymore.  He would be determined to fling his mind, body and soul into an adventure that would bring him and Naomi together, to laugh and love.  But that dream was far of, like the shadow of himself as he once was, and the reflection of himself as he would be, rising in the heat of the sunset.  The pure contentment of bounding was enough for him now.  He leaned back into the rhythm of the Shadow Fox and thought of the present… pleasantly.

_Can you imagine when this race is won   
Turn our golden faces into the sun _

            Somewhere, far away from everyone, a white Liger too bounded across the sands.  Prepared for battle, craving it as a warrior truly does.  Inside its pilot laughed, feeling the Zoid's eagerness.  Here he had come out for an adventure, not simply to battle.  Perhaps though, it wouldn't be such a bad compromise.  They could travel the world searching for the best pilots and Zoids, and test their real skill.  Bit Cloud was like a dog released from his leash, now able to go wherever he pleased, running wild and free.  It wasn't that he had anything against his friends; he'd just never been a person to stay in one place for so long.  Traveling alone had its perks, eating when you pleased, sleeping all day if you wanted, stopping where and when you wanted, but he had no doubt that he would feel the need for his friends again sooner or later.  The Liger roared sensing Bit's feelings.  'Sure partner, later would be fine with me too…'

_Praising our leaders we're getting in tune   
The music's played by the madmen _

            In the hovercraft, Leena was lying in bed reading a book, but she couldn't keep her mind on what she was reading.  Some silly romance, where the girl had found the perfect guy, and stumbled through and adventure trying to figure out how to tell this man how she felt about him.  She sighed, it was always the same, what had she seen in these things.  It had once seemed so believable, before she had lived the true terror of finding someone for you, of rejection… They never talk about that stuff in these mushy stories; the two characters always fall in love with each other and live happily ever after.  No one is ever in love with someone, who's in love with someone else, who doesn't even notice him, and you wait for your person to give up on her and notice you've been waiting for him the whole time.  It seemed so long ago, yet so recent, all her adventures into love.  She wondered where the time went… Did she laze like this all the time; was she busy planning ahead on things that were out of her hands?  Sometimes she felt like a little girl in a young women's body.  Ready to love, but not sure how to love, or what to look for…  
  


_Forever young, I want to be forever young   
Do you really want to live forever, forever and ever _

            She sighed, time passed her by, and she wondered if she would be old before she found the one she really wanted.  "C'mon Leena!  It's time for dinner."  Jamie called down the hall.  "Coming," she replied.  Jumping from the bed and stretching every muscle, she studied the faces in the picture frames around her room.  There was Jamie and Bit and Brad, all standing, smiling.  Bit's aqua eyes reflected his humor, his devotion to his adventures.  Brad's smile was a dubious one, reflecting his true shyness, his discomfort around people, but all the same a kind sort of passion glittered underneath.  Jamie's eyes, his smile always reached his eyes, as did all his emotions, you could always tell what was going on in his head by looking in his eyes, but there was a courage there, if you looked for it, one that looked forward to every adventure.  Her father, Leon, and Oscar too.  They seemed to be an older version of her team trio.  Their eyes were so different, so sad, and dark, they spoke of experiences good and bad.  A softness glowed out of their weathered faces, lovable age, as though they had grown older, and not noticed it.  And finally Harry.  His own green eyes were eager and clear, a million possibilities shined from within him.  His devotion to catching her, and to defeating Bit.  The eyes of warriors, all of them, the fierce yet gentle eyes.

_Some are like water, some are like the heat   
Some are a melody and some are the beat _

            Toros sat at a bar with Leon and Oscar on either side of him; they hadn't spoken of old times, like most old friends do.  They had talked of now, and of the future.  It made them feel old to talk about the past.  It was so long ago, laughter and tears, and life long scars echoed there.  It was best not to talk about things you couldn't change.  It was good to have Leon back by his side again, Toros was always a little sentimental, and seemed to be growing only more so as the years passed.  

"It's almost Leena's birthday again" he sighed.  

"What's the matter Toros, don't know what to get her?"  Leon asked taking a sip of his drink… (All drinks will remain undisclosed throughout this fic due to the sensors…) 

 "No, that's easy… she wants this new custom Zoid part…It's just…" Toros played with the rim of his mug.  

"C'mon Toros out with it already."  Demanded Oscar taking a liberal gulp from the canteen that he kept with him constantly.  

"I can remember when she as only knee high, toddling around barely able to talk.  Then her first day of kindergarten, and her graduation from middle school…  Things have flown by me so fast that I can recall everything, but I still don't know how we got here…" Oscar and Leon too sighed sagely; time had dragged on them all, seeming to creep up on them, only to show itself when it's far too late to do anything about it. 

 "Feh, we all grow, it's the young ones that keep us in our youth."  Leon grunted, "They need us for guidance through our expert advice, and we need to laugh at they're childishness, their inexperience and enthusiasm…  At least that's what I tell myself anyway."  Toros and Oscar nodded and laughed, perhaps they weren't nearly as old as they felt… or at least they hoped they weren't.

_Sooner or later they all will be gone   
Why don't they stay young _

          The Tigers Team was who knows where sitting around a campfire eating their hot noodles.  None of them spoke, but the mind set was apparent.  They were sulking.  One humiliation seemed to followed only by the next.  The Goddess of Happiness seemed to have a rather capricious nature when it came to these three.  Tossed out on the seas of hardship, many times over.  Failure after failure, win after win, only to slide them back into failure again.  The two younger brothers were completely perplexed by their odd luck, and barely held onto their will to continue.  They weren't sure how much humiliation they could take before they cracked.  The 'fuzzy pandas' was a name that was now sticking, and it seemed to them that it would be that much easier just to sulk back into the shadows and let themselves be forgotten by everyone.  

_It's so hard to get old without a cause   
I don't want to perish like a fading horse _

Kirkland however, would never stand for that.  He carried his brothers, his team along on his will alone.  A candle in the wind at times, but his spirit burned brighter than humiliation could stand.  Perhaps they lost, and they would continue to lose, but that's not why they battled.  They battled to improve themselves as warriors.  All through life humans learn from failure.  A child learns to walk by falling down, learns to ride a bike through crashing and learning to get back up even though it hurts, and what child has hit the ball the first time he swung at it?  The older one gets it seems the less they are able to accept failure.  But, no matter what, he would persevere and pull his team along behind him, drag them if he had to.  He would not let humiliation triumph over them, they would not quit before they had become the best they could possibly be, they were stones in the rough, and every battle, win or lose, polished them. Each battle was a wave that crashed down on them like stones on the beach, and they would either shine, or die trying.  He crumpled his empty noodle cup and announced it was time to carry on.

_Youth is like diamonds in the sun   
And diamonds are forever _

Jack Cisco sat in the corner of a diner in Romeo City.  Restlessly he shuffled and reshuffled his worn deck of cards.  His mind as always was on the cocky young Zoid pilot that seemed to defeat him under the best and worst of circumstances.  He couldn't understand the boy, talking to his Zoid like that.  As if the thing had feelings.  Although, he couldn't help but notice that the Liger was merely an extension of Bit Cloud.  They seemed to move and think as one, no lag time as the commands went through…  Jack had lived for the rush of the battle.  The life and death gamble, anything with chance that was Jack's game.  Believing infallibly in luck, and trusting only in his own skill, had made him the best mercenary on the planet.  Until that kid had come along in the Liger.  Perhaps, he had been lacking something; he lacked the love of the battle, the love of the Zoid that all the other great warriors seemed to share.  There was a time, when his cold calculated method had worked, but Bit had changed every thing; everyone's rules were turned on their ear.  It seemed that these days, you adapted or you faded out of site.  Maybe, it was time for a change…

_S__o many adv__entures couldn't happen today   
S__o many songs we forgot to play   
So many dreams are swinging out of the blue   
We let them come true_

            Roaming the battle swept lands, fighting, laughing, playing, dreaming, loving, hating…  This is the life of the warrior.  

_Forever young, I want to be forever young_

            No time for a break, no time to slow down, though time seems non-existent to them until it becomes painfully obvious.

_Do you really want to live forever, forever and ever_

            Honor, courage, justice, revenge, adventure, and danger.  These are the things our warriors live for.  The thrill of victory, the agony of defeat, to give themselves a cause…

_Forever young, I want to be forever young_

            Rushing onwards into their dreams and their ultimate destiny…

_Do you really want to live forever, forever and ever_

            Listen to echoes of the past…

_Forever young, I want to be forever young_

            And just live, the best way they know how.

_Do you really want to live forever…  Forever young_

  
  
  



End file.
